Tesco to cut 1,800 jobs nationwide as chain revamps bakery departments

Staff working in the bakery department of the Tesco Superstore in Sudbury could be facing the threat of redundancy.

It comes after the supermarket giant confirmed it was making changes to its in-store bakery offering as part of a major review. And while it will mean changes in hundreds of stores nationwide, it will also see more than 1,800 jobs face the axe.

The chain currently operates a supermarket at the Woodhall Business Park in Sudbury.

As of May, it will alter the space and increase the range of alternatives to traditional loaves which, it says, has seen a decline in demand.

In a statement it said: "We will continue to offer scratch baking in 257 stores but we’re making some changes to our other bakeries.

"In 201 stores the most popular products will continue to be baked from scratch with other products moving to part-baked.

"And in 58 stores we’re converting the bakery to full bake-off where all products are delivered pre-prepared, then baked and finished in store.

"In light of this, we have undertaken a review to make sure our bakery operation is relevant for the way the market and our customers have evolved.

"Due to some stores doing less scratch baking, as well as the simplified routines these changes will bring, we will unfortunately need fewer colleagues to work in these areas.

"As a result, there are 1,816 bakery colleagues being put at risk of redundancy.

"At this difficult time, our priority will be to support those colleagues impacted, including finding an alternative role from the many thousands of vacancies we will have available across our store networks between now and May, for those who wish to stay with us."

Jason Tarry, Tesco's UK CEO, said: “We need to adapt to changing customer demand and tastes for bakery products so that we continue to offer customers a market-leading bakery range in store.

"We know this will be very difficult for colleagues who are impacted, and our priority is to support them through this process.

"We hope that many will choose to stay with us in alternative roles.”

It has not yet confirmed in which stores staff will be at risk.